Lennart Bernadotte

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Friedrich Lennart Straehl, August, 1965
Lennart Bernadotte on his yacht Stella Polaris with grandson Friedrich Lennart Straehl (August 1965)

Gustaf Lennart Nicolaus Paul Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (born May 8, 1909 in Stockholm , † December 21, 2004 on the island of Mainau ) was a Swedish nobleman . His most important achievement was the conversion of the island of Mainau in Lake Constance into a flower paradise that is visited by over a million tourists every year.

What is less well known is that Thor Heyerdahl's amateur 16 mm film recordings were copied to 35 mm with considerable effort . This paved the way for the film “Kon-Tiki” to Hollywood and the Oscars .

Life

Lennart Bernadotte was the only son of Prince Wilhelm of Sweden and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia and thus the grandson of King Gustav V of Sweden. His parents divorced in 1914 when he was five years old. That is why Lennart was raised as the "Hereditary Prince of Sweden and Duke of Småland" largely by his grandmother, Queen Victoria of Sweden . He was also a great-grandson of the Russian Tsar Alexander II .

Lennart Bernadotte with parents

On February 20, 1932, the then Prince Lennart of Sweden married Karin Nissvandt (1911–1991), the bourgeois factory owner's daughter, in London . Because of this marriage he renounced a possible succession by leaving the royal house .

His father, Prince Wilhelm of Sweden , inherited the island of Mainau in Lake Constance from his mother, the Swedish Queen Viktoria († 1930), a native princess of Baden, but had no use for it. The parks of Friedrich I of Baden were overgrown at that time. Lennart Bernadotte planned to develop Mainau Island into a park that could be used by tourists.

Lennart spent the Second World War with his family in Sweden, where he began a career as a photographer. His photographs, especially in the macro area , are shown in many exhibitions. He earned his living as editor of the magazine "Foto" and as a film producer.
In 1951 "Artfilm" produced the documentary about Thor Heyerdahl 's crossing of the Pacific with the " Kon-Tiki " raft and received two Oscars .

After the end of the war he returned to the Mainau. At the suggestion of two doctors from Lindau , he also organized the first meeting with Nobel Prize winners in Lindau in 1951 .

Lennart Bernadotte, monument on the island of Mainau

In 1951, as Lennart Prince Bernadotte , he received the Luxembourg title of Count of Wisborg from his aunt, Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg .

In 1955 he became president of the German Horticultural Society . In 1961, in this role, he initiated the competition “ Our village should become more beautiful ”. As a result he founded the German Council for Land Care . This work culminated in 1961 in the “ Green Charter of Mainau ”, which shows the basic rules for dealing with nature. Later, Bernadotte was also President of the International Board of Trustees for the European Prize for Land Care.

Bernadotte and his first wife Karin Nissvandt had four children together. The marriage ended in divorce in 1971. On April 29, 1972, he married Sonja Haunz (1944–2008), 35 years his junior , who was his personal assistant. There are five children from this marriage.

On November 11, 2004, a few weeks before his death, he had his last public appearance when his wife was given the foolish honorary title of “castle mistress” from the “Great Constance Narrengesellschaft Niederburg of 1884” at the start of the Carnival. This was broadcast by SWR television .

Lennart Bernadotte had a lung disease for a long time and in his last years often relied on a wheelchair or electric vehicle. He died on December 21, 2004 at the age of 95 in his castle on the island of Mainau and was quietly buried in the crypt of the castle church on the island; a funeral service took place later.

coat of arms

  • Lennart's coat of arms as Prince of Sweden

  • Prince Lennart Bernadotte in the nobility of Luxembourg

His descendants

Lennart Bernadotte with his son Jan (1950)

Descendants from the first marriage with Karin Nissvandt

  • Birgitta Bernadotte (* May 3, 1933 in Stockholm  ), married since 1955 to Friedrich Otto Straehl (* 1922). They have five children together.
  • Maria Lovisa Birgitta Bernadotte (born November 6, 1935 in Stockholm, † May 24, 1988 in Konstanz  ), married from 1956 to Rudolf Adolf Kautz (* 1930). She had three children with him.
  • Jan Bernadotte ( Carl Johan Gustaf Wilhelm , born January 9, 1941 in Stockholm), married
    1st from 1965 to 1967 to Gunilla Stampe (* 1941),
    2nd from 1967 to 1970 to Anna Skarne (* 1944),
    3rd from 1972 until 1974 with Annegret Thomssen (* 1938),
    4th from 1974 to 1987 with Maritta Berg (* 1953),
    5th since 2004 with Christiane Grandmontagne (* 1944).
    He has four children from different marriages.
    Bernadotte with his fiancée Karin Nissvandt (1932)
  • Karin-Cecilie Bernadotte (* April 9, 1944 in Stockholm), married from 1967 to 1974 to Hans Jörg Baenkler (* 1939).

Descendants from the second marriage with Sonja Haunz

  • Bettina Bernadotte (* March 12, 1974 in Scherzingen ), Managing Director of Mainau GmbH, has been married to Philipp Haug (* 1973) since 2004. They have three children together.
  • Catherina Ruffing-Bernadotte (born April 11, 1977 in Scherzingen), landscape architect, has been married to Romuald Ruffing (* 1966) since 2007. From 2007 to 2008, he was Head of Controlling for the Lake Constance island of Mainau.
  • Christian Wolfgang Bernadotte (born May 24, 1979 in Scherzingen), who studies philosophy and sociology at the University of Konstanz, has been married to the nurse Christine Stoltmann (* 1977) since May 22, 2010. He and his wife have a son.
  • Diana Bernadotte (born April 18, 1982 in Scherzingen), hat maker, was married to Bernd Grawe (* 1966), chimney sweep, from 2003 to 2007; they have a daughter together. In 2010 she had a son.

Orders, honors and awards

various

The artist Peter Lenk took up Bernadotte's large number of children and portrayed him in 2001 with a statue that stands on a column of the “Fountain of Youth” in the Seepark Linzgau in Pfullendorf and Bernadotte as the “Butterfly King” (a mixture of naked man and butterfly) with a huge trunk showing between the legs.

On the occasion of his 100th year of birth, Mainau began the new season on March 20, 2009 under the motto 100 years of Lennart Bernadotte . At the opening ceremony on the Mainau on March 19th, Countess Bettina Bernadotte and her brother Björn christened a Paphiopedilum hybrid in "Graf-Lennart-Orchidee".

literature

  • Lennart Graf Bernadotte: … a life for the Mainau. Memoirs . Stadler, Konstanz 1996, ISBN 3-7977-0358-9 .
  • Lennart Bernadotte, a man, an island, a life's work . Catalog, Blumeninsel Mainau, (Ed. And others) Brigitte Leipold, Konstanz, 1992.
  • Ointroducerad Adel 1975. Uppsala 1975, ISBN 91-85388-00-9 .
  • Roger Orlik : Count Lennart Bernadotte - the "King of Lake Constance". Biography . SP Verlag, Albstadt 2002, ISBN 3-9807873-2-X .

Movies

  • The Bernadottes and the Mainau - The legacy of the count. Documentary, Germany, 2014, 89:43 min., Script and direction: Christopher Paul, production: SWR , first broadcast: December 30, 2014 on SWR, synopsis by ARD , online video available until May 1, 2019.
  • The young count and his sisters. The Bernadottes on the island of Mainau. Documentary, Germany, Switzerland, 2011, 51 min., Script and director: Andrea Maria Pfalzgraf Aebischer, production: SRF , first broadcast: January 5, 2012 on SF 1 , announcement in the Stuttgarter Zeitung , online video on SRF.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Thor Heyerdahl: In Adam's footsteps, p. 224 ff.
  2. ↑ a b Lothar Burchardt, Tobias Engelsing, Jürgen Klöckler: Lennart Bernadotte (1909-2004) during the time of National Socialism and in the immediate post-war years (expert opinion, pdf)
  3. ↑ Lothar Burchardt, Tobias Engelsing, Jürgen Klöckler: Lennart Bernadotte (1909-2004) during the Nazi era and in the immediate post-war years (expert opinion, pdf)
  4. ↑ According to Heyerdahl's memoirs (1998), the company consisted of Gf. Lennart and his friend Olle Nordemar and owned Europe's first optical printer . This allowed the individual squads zoom (video) and correct if necessary downright questions and also wrong speed recording and other errors.
  5. ^ Mémorial du Grand Duché de Luxembourg. ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.legilux.public.lu archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. August 13, 1951, p. 1135, (PDF).
  6. ↑ a b c d Family tree Maria Lovisa Countess Bernadotte. In: deutscheradel.de. Retrieved May 6, 2018 .
  7. ^ Jan Bernadotte (76 år) Flen. In: Ratsit.se , accessed May 6, 2018, (Swedish)
  8. ↑ Jörg-Peter Rau: Bettina Countess Bernadotte: You can say "Silvia" to the queen. In: Südkurier , August 13, 2014.
  9. ^ Nils Köhler: Mainau Countess' husband loses job. ( Memento from February 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) In: Südkurier , September 9, 2008.
  10. ^ Nikolaj Schutzbach: Mainau-Glück: Count Christian Bernadotte has married. In: Südkurier , May 24, 2010.
  11. ^ Dpa : Birth of Maximilian Benedikt on August 10, 2010. In: Südkurier , August 11, 2010.
  12. ↑ Another offspring on the Mainau. In: Südkurier , August 18, 2010.
  13. ↑ Albert Schweitzer Medals for Humanitarian Merit. In: Austrian Albert Schweitzer Society , accessed on May 6, 2018.
  14. ^ Fritjof Schultz-Friese: Mainau season 2009 honors “100 years of Lennart Bernadotte”. In: Bodensee-Woche.de of March 21, 2009.
      Photo of a "Graf-Lennart-Orchid": In the intoxication of the fragrant flowers. In: Stuttgarter Nachrichten , March 12, 2011.
personal data
SURNAME Bernadotte, Lennart
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bernadotte, Gustaf Lennart Nicolaus Paul (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish nobleman, creator of the flower island Mainau
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Stockholm
DATE OF DEATH December 21, 2004
Place of death Mainau Island